What Do You Mean He's Missing?
by Door Is Ajar
Summary: Atem and Mana have done nothing but play on their day off from training. But what happens when an intruder breaks in the palace with his goal at capturing the Prince?
1. Ch 1: Is This The Prince?

_Chapter 1: Is This the Prince?  
><em>

When Mana and the Prince were about eleven or twelve, the place they called home was attacked. In most cases, no one would call it an 'attack,' however. In the middle of the night a small group of thieves sneaked into the palace. During that time, the Prince and Mana had fallen asleep on his bed inside the chambers after a day they had all to themselves, which they used to play babyish games like usual. You couldn't expect them to sleep straight. Oh, no, not at all.

The Prince was on his back to an angle on the left side of the bed with his mouth open to breath. His legs hung off, and his feet touched the floor while his arms were stretched above his head. Mana wasn't nearly as bad, laying on her right side away from the Prince while her legs curled into her body and her arms near her chest.

The Prince shot up like a bullet, closing his mouth and placing his hands beside himself to hold his body up, when he heard a crash from outside his room. Standing up off of his bed, he wiped his eyes in an attempt to ward off the sleep that was still lingering on him. Then, looking to his left, he noticed Mana. He was tempted to awaken her but thought better of it, figuring it was just a strong wind that knocked over a vase or simply his imagination.

Walking out of his room, he grabbed the door frame and looked both ways to see if he could spot anything in particular. With nothing to aid him, he started walking to the left. He took two steps when another crash sounded but to the right. He turned his head, preparing for someone to be heading his direction. Instead, he was greeted with nothing. Nothing but the hallway and the darkness that the night granted the palace.

Rubbing his eyes again, he thought his mind might be playing tricks on him. He had been playing outside all day under the heat, and now he was walking around without fully waking up from his slumber. He walked towards the right but stopped in his tracks when he felt his head get dizzy. And then there was a pain in is stomach. He grabbed onto the door frame, which was the only thing keeping him from falling over.

He looked down to see an arm that held a knife. His pupils shrunk in the realization the he had been stabbed.

"But... There's... Where's the person...?" he thought. His eyes were getting droopy, blurring his vision. But then he put the arm to his side as an answer that the person was simply behind him.

"Dang it! Is this the Prince or not?" the intruder mumbled under his breath. "Oh well, you won't be able to do anything... I'll leave you here, and I'll go get my boss."

The man was still whispering to himself as he harshly yanked out the knife, causing the Prince to yell out and start crying, which was muffled by him biting his lip. Flicking the blood off of his knife, the man ran down the hallway to the left. The Prince continued to mute his crying but fell to the floor in pain and placed both his hands onto his stomach.

"Mana... Mana!" he called to the girl sleeping on his bed to hopefully get her attention.

Her eyes lazily made their way open; however, she didn't bother moving because she couldn't pick up anything that was loud enough for her to register. She closed her eyes again until she heard a soft moan, followed by more muffled crying that she now realized her brain had ignored because of how low in volume it was.

"Prince? Is that you?" she asked through the haze sleep had left on her, also. She jumped out of bed when the soft crying didn't cease, but she didn't know whether she regretted doing that or not. In the doorway the Prince faced her with his eyes and mouth closed, his body curled in on itself.

Blood was slowly pooling around him as Mana dropped to her knees in front of him. "Help! S-Someone, help! Please!" she called out to no one in particular, just hoping she could be heard before her own weeping would not allow her to scream.

"Prince, c-can you hear me?" she waited for an answer and was about to start screaming for someone again when she watched his left eye slowly open and look up at her.

He opened his mouth to speak but thought better when he almost started to cry aloud. Instead, he closed his mouth and his one eye, only to nod his head up and down to answer.

"O-Okay. Just relax, um, I'm going to get someone. Alright?" If he wasn't so weary, he would have thought she was talking to comfort herself.

"Is anyone around! Someone, please come help!" Within seconds that time a guard appeared. It didn't take any explaining before he spoke. "Just stay right here with him. I'm going to get the Pharaoh, he should be around here."

His words were calm, which seemed to have the same effect on Mana as he ran away to the left.

Her crying, on the other hand, wouldn't stop. They continued to roll down her face nonstop. She took her hands and placed them on his side, rolling him to lay on his back.

"You're going to be okay. I-I just know you are, okay? Can you still hear me?" she spilled whatever she thought of, and his eyes opened to her last question.

"Please don't leave me, Mana. It-It hurts..." at this his eyes made their way shut again, and he stopped his crying from coming out so loud, rolling his head slowly back and forth as if to ease the pain away.

_To Be Continued..._

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><p>So here's my new story. If you've read the Update on my other YGO story, you know that this chapter is from the other one. However, the reason I moved it was so I could expand on this however much I want to. Thanks again for all your support everyone, and I hope you enjoy~! :D<p> 


	2. Ch 2: You Can't Have Him!

_Chapter 2: You Can't Have Him!_

_"Please don't leave me, Mana. It-It hurts..."  
><em>

That was all it took for Mana's heart to drop. Too far for her to reach again unless the Prince somehow got instantly better. She could feel her eyes widen. She already knew this was a serious matter, but somehow everything seemed to turn for the worst, making the situation seem more intense than it was supposed to be.

"What should I do? He-He's going to bleed to death or something!" she though, trying to avoid staring at the blood that had made its way to her knees. Now coating them in the dark red... sticky and slimy... and coming from her friend!

Her mouth grew wide, ready to scream with her hands coming towards her face but not quite touching in some sort of fear. He was going to die. That was all there was to it. He was going to die right in front of her face while she lost all her sanity. There was nothing she could do! He had been stabbed and left to die!

Or... Was he meant to die? Maybe he stabbed him just... just to make him vulnerable!

That was her last hold onto anything to remain calm. Shaky breaths from her became softer and less ragged, and her face returned to a somewhat normal look. She stopped staring directly at the blood and instead focused on the Prince.

He looked dead.

She felt her breath hitch in her throat before tuning out the thought. His stomach was still rising, however fast and uneven his breaths may be. He seemed to have fallen asleep. Or was unconscious. Either way, he was out; and except for his abdomen, which was where all the blood was pouring out from...

She had to swallow dryly and sigh to get the thought of his red blood out of her mind. So... Except for his rising and falling... bloody... stomach, he was still. And his mouth. Yes, his mouth remained open, but he slightly closed it and opened it to breath. His face appeared pained from the wound, and it took everything in her to touch him.

Grabbing his shoulders, she shook him slightly and earned a small moan, closing his mouth in the process. "P-Prince? Can you hear me? A-Are you awake?"

His brows furrowed slightly before his eyes opened to a blurry world. The face above his own to his side had two just like it... but then they would combine before becoming three again.

"Mana?" Oh. Right. He had been stabbed. By who, though? The man didn't sound familiar, and he didn't get to see his face.

"Hold on one second, okay?" she spoke. Now that she knew he was alive and could speak and was okay and was alive and... She could just go on. But now that she knew all these things after him being stabbed and- stupidly- thought to be dead, the fear had washed away and was replaced with a determination and fierceness that wasn't at all evil. If anything, it was kind, as if directed towards him in his need.

Nodding his head and closing his eyes, Mana stood up, ignoring the blood dripping to the floor from her knees, and pulled the blanket on the bed to the end with one swift motion. Returning to the Prince, she asked, "Are you still awake?"

With a small up-and-down motion from him, she continued. "I'm going to pick you up, okay? And put you on your bed."

"'Kay..." Although not much and weak, she felt her heart seem to rise from the pit that had- at first- seemed to trap it far away from her. Putting one arm behind his neck and the other under his knees, she lifted him up and walked to the bed. She placed him down softly but still earned a muffled moan from him.

"Just relax, okay? Guards are out there catching the guy who did this to you and... and your father was to be sent here." Her words were meant for him, but she could tell herself that they calmed her, possibly more than it did him.

"C-Can I ask you so-something?" It was a mouthful, and he wanted to spit as his mouth seemed to fill with saliva. If not blood.

"Y-Yeah, go on." She wasn't expecting anything to come from him right now, except for him to just lay down and do absolutely nothing until help came.

"Please don't... don't get hurt bec-cause of me. Okay?" His voice was horse, and he was squinting with the one eye he held open. But he still felt the need to protect.

Her mouth had opened slightly in what he said, and had to remind herself to just speak. "No promises." She turned her emotionless face into a small grin, which wasn't just an act for him.

He seemed to understand that she wasn't simply smiling to feed him false comfort, making him return the smile.

Before the two could say another word, a scream came from down the hallway. "He's going right! The Prince is down there, we need to catch him!" Those commands followed as footsteps steadily approached.

Mana thought that anyone could hear her heartbeat with how loud it was getting. Seconds passed and the steps got louder and louder before one figure jumped into their room, a hood over his head to hide his identity.

"Stupid guards... They should of been too far away to see me go in here..." Turning around from the door frame, he faced the two children, who where staring at him with shrunk pupils and hearts going a mile a minute. "When they find me, I'll need a hostage..."

_To Be Continued..._

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><p>I hope you liked the second chapter! I'm sorry updates are slow, and I hope to have the next chapter of this or my other YGO story by next weekend. Peace~!<em><br>_


	3. Ch 3: What If I Kill Him?

_Chapter 3: What If I Kill Him?_

It was quite evident to the two kids that death would seem better than this. Than staring a criminal in the eyes with a large possibility of being tortured or used to make loved ones do actions they would regret otherwise. With their pupils small, Mana unconsciously backed up from him a step. She then gripped the Prince's hand with one of her own, her other stitched to her skirt.

"So, I think the Prince would work just fine. But if I had both... well... I'll just say that the little girl is better than dead. So why waste my time trying to take you? However... what if you should decide to talk? Answer questions about how I look or what I sound like or what I wore?" The man seemed to ramble about their current situation, but the Prince could understand through his foggy mind that he was attempting to make them fear him. By giving out his plans, it made him seem strong enough to do just that act.

The man walked closer as he continued his speech, his head low with a smirk on his face. "So I've decided." Here he lifted his head to look at the two, barely two feet into the at least ten foot room. "I'll take you both."

They tried to get a glimpse of the man about to steal them from home, but the dirty brown cape with a hood covered much of anything, what with night not allowing any help what-so-ever. The criminal then pulled out a knife, still coated with a few drops of blood from his previous attack.

"I don't think you want to resist..." It came out more as a threat than a opinion on the matter however much they wanted it to be the latter.

As he neared the bed, the Prince could feel the grip on his hand tighten and tighten and tighten... before the man was a mere five feet from the pair. That was when he could clearly hear Mana's ragged, terrified breathing reaching his ears.

The fear of his own had consumed him already, making him nearly frozen in place. But when he saw the knife raise as if the man planned to throw it at Mana, the new fear that seemed to crawl throughout his body made him move without his consent. He unsteadily jumped to his feet, standing in front of Mana. Her grip had released from him- He assumed- when the man brought the weapon above his head and she moved her hands to cover her mouth as she gasped.

"Move it, or maybe I should just kill you? But how would that sound, saying you saved a commoner for what? Nothing but her life!" Laughing, made his way towards them with no real interest in making the ordeal quick and emotionally painless for them. The Prince had his brows furrowed and his mouth open as if to growl in anger, but he couldn't resist the urge to think about how Mana would feel when she grabbed at his shirt.

She would blame herself if he was to die right here in front of her while protecting none other than her. But he would blame himself for not protecting her when he could have done just that! A wire seemed to connect in his brain, remembering something that seemed- to say the least- very important. His facial expression softened to one of having an epiphany but with more seriousness than a simple understanding of a stupid joke.

"Mana, see that vase? It should be right behind you. Inside is a sword. Can you get it out?" he whispered, turning his head the slightest bit but not taking his eyes off of the man consumed on making them suffer a frightening wait.

She, too, seemed to understand his new form of action, and, making sure she was not noticeable, pulled a sword two or three feet long out of the tall vase. She kept the sharp end facing downward and slid the object carefully to his side without the man spotting it.

With the hilt now in in his right hand, his swung the weapon forward, pointing it at the criminal and now adding his left hand to hold. "Get away! If you don't, the guards will find us in here, and then you'll be the dead one!" Mana yelled from behind the Prince, sticking her head out some to stare at him.

"How long can he stay standing, though? I'm sure that wound I made earlier stings pretty bad. Either that or you won't be able to land a decent hit with your blood loss making you dizzy or messing up your vision. I'm not as dumb as you think, you know." At his last statement, he brought down his hand and used his pointed finger to poke his noggin a few times. As much as he would like to prove him wrong, he couldn't.

The amount of blood he lost was making his body shake. However, the pain was missing. He assumed the adrenaline from being scared and fighting and acting in the moment was keeping the pain at bay. Or better, his entire body numb from anything.

"Just shut it..." That didn't sound too much like a threat from the Prince, but it was all he could muster through his gritted teeth. Although the pain didn't seem to register, the effect lingered on his body and the actions it committed.

The man gave a chuckle before charging at them, the knife above his head once more to strike. But what could that short thing do against the long sword the Prince wielded? With his eyes becoming smaller and his entire body seeming to flinch from surprise, the Prince hauled the somewhat light sword above his right shoulder, ready to guard. As the man brought down the knife, he yanked the sword forward to block the first strike.

The Prince's mouth remained open in his struggle to push him off, but the criminal was simply too strong, too overpowering. That was when another idea seemed to smack him in the face.

"Mana... Get out of here." He had suspected her to start a complaint, and so continued as he imagined her mouth begin to open. "I'll be fine as long as you can get someone else here! Now just hurry and go, please!"

She wasn't used to hearing royalty beg her to do things. Yes, he was her friend, and he may say such a thing for something simply that would require almost no effort on either of their parts. But this was a serious matter, and royalty was not supposed to beg ones underneath them. So when he whispered to her his plea in a tone that was not commanding but laced with begging and even the additional 'please,' she could not turn down his request.

Without taking her eyes off the pair, she quickly jumped onto the bed and around the two. The two different metals seemed to escape one another's grasp for a split second before they were at it again. She assumed the man attempted to attack her, but the Prince had stopped him without much hesitation at all

All she could hope for now was a strong guard. That and the Prince to still be alive when she returned.

_To Be Continued..._

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><p>Yes, I know it's kind of short. But all the chapters in this kind of are. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the next one~! Now, I know I'm really slow at getting new ones, but school pretty much takes up any hours that I have outside of the classroom with homework. I hope to have another chapter by next week or possibly by Monday, since it's a holiday. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and- of course- I would love a review, both positive and negative~! :D<p> 


	4. Ch 4: Sooner Would Have Been Better

_Chapter 4: Sooner Still Would Have Been Better_

As she made her way outside the room occupied by the Prince and the intruder, she quickly looked both ways, left and right, to see if anyone was visible in either direction. She noticed a light coming from the right from what gave off the glow of a torch and deduced the only people that should be out are guards. What happened to the other one that was supposed to bring someone? Wasn't it the Pharaoh? Anyway, she could care less now that help was here.

She raced down the few feet and almost rammed right into the man in her urgency.

"Mana? What's wrong? Why are you awake at this time of night?" The casualty remained in his voice, but she could still hear the seriousness that being what seemed to be one of the Prince's guards gave him. She was only lucky enough to be too carefree to gain such a normal sounding emotion to her speaking.

But that same luck drove her emotions too far, making her spill them out as fast as she could as tears began spilling out of her eyes in sudden realization that she left the Prince, possibly to die.

"Hurry, Mahad! Th-There's a man who attacked Atem, and now he's holding the man off! Come on, hurry!" she yelled in something close to hysteria while yanking on his shirt in a too-fast to be normal pace.

She didn't even realize she addressed the Prince informally.

A flicker of fright crossed Mahad's face in her truth, and, gently placing the torch into a holding in the wall, put his hands on her shoulders.

"I am going to attempt to attack the man off-guard. I do not want you to make a sound following me, alright?" The calmness in his voice was simply too realistic. The Prince could be _dead_, and he didn't even seemed fazed from Mana's standpoint. However, he could feel his own fear rising, and if the Prince did so happen to be dead or near such, he knew he would loose it. Slaughter the man until his remains couldn't even be identified.

He carefully pulled out a sword from the sash around his waist, which Mana assumed was for protection while walking around for whatever reason he may have. He took the lead, sliding his feet across the floor to avoid as much sound as possible. Mana mustered as much courage as her terrified mind would allow and dittoed Mahad's steps.

Now outside the door, he slipped his head inside to discover how he should attack. The man had his back towards them, but he could see the Prince from his position behind the criminal. He prepared himself to run in and stab the man when the stand-off seemed to change in disfavor.

Sliding his foot behind the Prince's foot, he tripped him, causing him to fall flat onto hit butt and a small, almost inaudible 'Woah' to escape his lips. "You'll be dead before your little friend can get back." It was a whisper, but it was filled with the venom same of satisfaction someone can only get from revenge or another such pleasant act.

Bringing his knife up above his head, he aimed it down at his heart, only for the Prince to block it with his sword once more. "I know you can't hold off much longer. That other stab to your left arm should be good enough to make you faint." The smirk grew larger than the Prince had seen it before, and he simply hated the fact the man was more right than he should be able.

The adrenaline was still keeping the pain away, although he could begin to feel that fade as fear for his live droned it out and replaced it with the pain. And no matter how hard he clenched his teeth, his body wouldn't seem to stop shacking; however much he knew the blood loss caused it, he figured something, anything would halt his unstable body.

"What are you waiting for?" Mana whispered to Mahad. If she wasn't so scared, so frightened, her voice would have been littered with nothing but hate and anger.

"If I kill the man while he's in an unfavorable position, he may kill the Prince on accident." It took her a second to piece it together, but if the guy fell over on top of the Prince, the knife could stab him and possibly kill him instantly.

But when the Prince used the same move to trip the guy and make him fall on his back, away from himself, Mahad jumped from his place behind the wall. He brought the sword back and stabbed the man in his stomach without hesitation. The criminal let out a scream before biting his lip to keep his sounds silent.

"You are under immediate arrest for attacking the Prince and causing damage to him. Also, you should try to hide your face if you're committed a crime before," Mahad spoke, admitting to the other two in the room that the attacker had caused other things like such to happen.

He didn't bother wasting another breath afterwards, taking the sword out of the man and stabbing him in the heart to kill him.

"Mahad! Won't you get in trouble for that!" Mana screamed from the doorway, too frightened to enter further.

"He attacked the Prince. We can leave it at that. Besides, I'm sure you would prefer for an accident like this to not happen again..." he stated, trailing off to look at the Prince. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed, breathing harshly and holding his stomach with one hand and his newer wound to his left arm with the other.

"Prince, we should-" Mahad began speaking but was cut off as Mana's cried cut him off.

She ran over towards the Prince, dropping to her knees and hugging him while leaning her head into his bloody shoulder. "I thought you were dead! I thought... I thought you were going to die, Atem! I really did! I thought that when I left to find someone, he was going to kill you! Even before that!"

Her cries began to muffle as she covered her entire face into his arm.

"Mana, please release the Prince. He needs immediate medical attention," Mahad started. He could see the blood on the floor, on the criminal's knife, and most importantly, on the Prince himself.

"M-Mahad..." the Prince stuttered out, almost as if testing himself to see if talking was an ability he could accomplish at the moment.

"Yes, my Prince?" he questioned.

"Please don't... be so formal." It was as simply as that. He didn't want to be called a prince by his friend. He didn't even have to ask Mana, so he could only hope Mahad would oblige.

"But that would be rude-"

"Please...? I hate having... my two friends... be so formal... to me..." Mahad could see his eyes getting droopy, falling shut slowly but flipping back open in the same lazy style as to not fall into the arms of unconsciousness.

With a sigh, he walked over to the Prince and leaned down onto his knees. "Sure, Atem. But you still need medical attention. You've lost too much blood."

At the sound of his name, a small smile formed on his lips. "Thanks, Mahad... Just... Can I ask you one more thing?" The Prince asked in his hazy state before sleep would overtake him.

"Anything, my Prince." He didn't catch himself at first, but minus two seconds, he corrected himself and said, "I mean, Atem."

"Can you two try... your magic to heal me? I don't... want to be taken away from you two right now. And... that's what they'll do it... you tell them... or whoever it is..." The loss of blood was finally reaching him, finally making his thoughts become slightly unstable.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Mahad turned to see Mana staring at him with watery eyes and a smile that he knew came from the Prince's request.

Instead of answering, he just nodded his head, and waited for Mana to follow with a small, "You bet."

_The End_

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><p><em><em>Well, that's it~! I hope you all enjoyed this short little story, and I hope you review, both positive and negative, to tell me how I did~! Thank you to everyone who supported me, not just in this, but in all the little stories I write! :D


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